07 June 2019

Industrial methane emissions underestimated by a factor of 100

From the Cornell [University] Chronicle:
Using a Google Street View car equipped with a high-precision methane sensor, the researchers discovered that methane emissions from ammonia fertilizer plants were 100 times higher than the fertilizer industry’s self-reported estimate...

“We took one small industry that most people have never heard of and found that its methane emissions were three times higher than the EPA assumed was emitted by all industrial production in the United States...”

...natural gas is largely methane, which molecule-per-molecule has a stronger global warming potential than carbon dioxide...
More at the link.

Tangentially related:  You can "tap" a living tree with a metal pipe and set fire to the methane that is emitted.
"The wood in this particular species naturally has this condition called wetwood, where it's saturated within the trunk of the tree" ... This wetwood makes for a welcoming home for all sorts of microorganisms.

Some of those organisms turned out to be species of archaea that are known methane producers. So it's not the trees themselves that are making the methane, it's the microbes living in the trees.
Video at the link. Via Neatorama.

No comments:

Post a Comment